


Resurrections

by The Jingo (The_King_in_White)



Category: Bleach, Naruto
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 15:08:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10310957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_King_in_White/pseuds/The%20Jingo
Summary: Beneath a crimson moon the cycle of incarnation is finally broken, but their story goes ever on and on... "If we both end up dying, we'll be free of all our burdens, and we'll finally be able to understand each other in the next world."





	1. Is This Heaven?

"Uhh?"

Blue eyes cracked open, staring blearily into the distant cerulean sky. Grimacing at the dryness of her throat, the blonde teen rolled over and pushed herself to her feet.

Rubbing at her eyelids in an effort to clear the last of the dried crust from her lashes, the blond girl scanned around her in a confused daze. Trees stretched as far as she could see, moss and dirt mingling over the forest floor. Sunlight slanted through breaks in the canopy, and there was just the faintest rush of water on the edge of her hearing.

Where was she?

... _Who_ was she?

For lack of a better idea, the blonde turned toward the distant sound of moving water and began to move forward. Birdsong filled the air with a musical trill, disturbed by the occasional rush of wind that sent the branches overhead into creaking sways.

A rumbling growl shook up from her stomach and with a rueful grin and shake of her head, the blond quickened her pace. Fuck, she was hungry. Pulling the folds of her white kosode tighter across her bosom, the blonde teen scowled in vague annoyance at the poor fit. She might not give much of a damn about formal shit, but she hardly wanted to go around flashing every pervert she met.

Pushing past a low-hanging branch, the blonde came across a small stream. Clear water bubbled merrily along, rinsing dark boulders that dotted the riverbed here and there. An idle blue eye judged the distance and decided it was just _slightly_ too far to jump across in a single leap, but the rocks were close enough together that she could cross without too much trouble.

Liquid splashed again across the damp surface of one of the stones, and the blonde was keenly reminded of her thirst. Throwing herself down on the grass just beside the stream, the young woman cupped slender hands together to scoop up a mouthful of water. She greedily swallowed it down, relishing in the cool trickle in her dry throat until her craving was entirely quenched.

Hunger pangs still ate at her, and the water sloshed around the empty confines of her stomach, but the blond was satisfied for the moment. She could look around for berries later on, or even find her way to a town. There should be people somewhere around to help her find out whom and where she was.

People...

Leaning over the edge of the bank, the blonde stared down into the slowly rippling surface of the stream with an expression of fascination. A slightly tanned face stared back, faint whisker-like lines slashing across her cheeks like odd birthmarks or tattoos. Blue eyes crowned delicate features, long lashes fluttering with the slight movement of her eyelids. Pert pink lips concealed the slightly elongated fangs that the blonde could feel with her tongue.

... What the fuck?

Poking out from the strands of her tumbledown golden hair were two twitching fox ears. Blonde fur ending in white points topped the back of them, and with a concentrated effort she managed to make them swivel about. In and out, up and down, rigid and flat, and all-around. It was actually kind of fun.

BUT IT WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT NORMAL.

Or at least, she didn't think it was. There was a vague mental image in her head of humans, and they all had round fleshy ears attached to the sides of their heads. Not great fluttering things that were more suited to her foggy memories of what a fox would look like. But for the life of her, the blond simply couldn't conjure up any other image of herself. Attempts to picture herself with regular human ears was even more disorienting than the shock of seeing actual fox ears crowning up from the sides of her head.

The fox ears were fucked up compared to what a human should look like. But they seemed right on her, which was even more fucked up, since the blonde was pretty sure that she was a human being.

Cracking drew her gaze away from the rippling mirror surface. The blonde stared across the stream as a high hedge of bushes rustled furiously before a dark haired man tumbled right on through them. Digging her slightly clawed fingers in the grassy earth, the blonde prepared to fight or flee even as the man was tugging at where his kosode was caught in the bushes and cursing under his breath.

"Oi." The blonde interrupted his one man war with the greenery. "Who the hell are you?"

With a last tug, the dark haired teen pulled free from the grasping branches. Sweeping the mussed strands of his hair out of his face, the raven peered thoughtfully at the blonde with coal dark eyes. An awestruck expression crossed his face in such a flash that the blonde was sure she'd imagined it. "Isn't it proper manners to offer your name to someone before asking theirs?"

The pale skin and aristocratic cut of the young man's features were like a kick to the chest for the blonde woman and sent her heart pounding. While he _was_ handsome - oh he was handsome – there was just something intensely familiar about him. Something that lit the fire behind her eyes and the pounding between her ears, memories of whatever life she must have lived before now screeching and hammering away at an invisible barrier. Because he was who he was, and she was who _she_ was. Opposite ends of the mirror, existing in a perfect contrast. Light and dark, each meaningless without the other and utterly dependent –

"Naruko." Burst forth from her lips, her throat offering up the secrets of her buried memories without her even registering it. "Uzumaki Naruko." The syllables dropped thick and weighted from her tongue.

The other teen's dark eyes glimmered with mingled shock and triumph, and Naruko knew that he felt the same as she had. Lost and alone and confused as to who he was, until in the last moment he'd been spurred on by her own gravitating presence into stealing a precious memory from the forgotten abyss of their former lives.

"Sasuke." Rolled from those thin lips that curved up into a smirk. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke."

* * *

"So where are we?"

"I don't know."

"So how did we get here then?"

"I don't know."

"So where are we going?"

"I don't know."

"So what –"

"Oh for the love of heaven, would you be _quiet_? Idiot."

"...Bastard."

Flicking a dark glare over his shoulder, Sasuke rolled his eyes at the pouting expression that adorned Naruko's whiskered face and turned away before the burning at the back of his neck grew too warm. It was, quite frankly, ridiculous. The blonde was _just_ a girl, and the Uchiha knew instinctively that he could brush off _just_ _girls_ easily enough.

It was far harder to just brush off the embarrassed heat that burnt the tips of his ears when he stared at her for too long though. It was even more difficult to pretend the awkward throbbing of his groins was anything _but_ arousal when she'd excitedly rushed across the stream with a heaving chest and thin white kosode clinging to her curves.

Fuck.

In vain Sasuke had tried to direct his attention to her odd fox ears. They weren't features he'd have expected to see on any other human, and combined with the whisker marks on her cheeks, made Naruko look more than a little bit different. Just focus on the ears. Ignore everything but the great big freakish twitching things. There was nothing sexy about fox ears. The Uchiha wouldn't get turned on by such a deviant thing. Even if they were actually kind of cute, and soft looking enough that Sasuke just itched to give them a tweak...

Fuck. _Fuck_.

 _Focus_.

"You know, we should cover those up." Sasuke blurted, fighting down the urge to turn around and stare with a mighty effort.

"Cover what up?"

"The ears." Slowing to a stop, Sasuke took a silent fortifying breath and turned around. Pretending that the quizzical expression she stared up at him with wasn't a kick to the gut, the Uchiha motioned at the fur covered appendages. "I don't really mind, but I have the feeling they're just a little bit _outside_ of the norm. We don't know how other people are going to react to them."

"Right!" Naruko agreed with a nod and a comically serious expression on her face. The blonde began to scan about with intent blue orbs, eyes darting over the foliage in search of something to wrap around her head.

After a drawn out minute, Sasuke rolled his eyes with a sigh. Settling a tight grip over his left sleeve, he gave a sharp yank and detached the pale fold of cloth from the kosode with a tearing sound.

"Oi, you don't have to do that! I've got my own cloth right here, ya know?" Naruko instantly protested, her attention drawn back by the ripping of threads.

Sasuke eyed the flimsy kosode that strained to contain her chest while preserving modesty with a significant glance. "Somehow, I really doubt that it's an option to start tearing at your clothes."

Flushing at the pointed gaze of the Uchiha's dark eyes, Naruko folded her arms over her breasts with a scowl. "Don't be staring at my boobs, you bastard! Pervert! Lecher! Peeping Tom!"

"Shut up!" Sasuke snarled, a warm flush to his own features. Snapping the torn off sleeve out into a flat band, the raven wrapped it around the blonde's head in a makeshift bow. The gentle nudging of his fingers as he carefully tucked her ears beneath the band was at odds with the dark glare of his eyes.

Naruko subsided with a quiet grumble of "Bastard..." fidgeting with pink-tinged cheeks until the Uchiha turned away. "I'm completely _starved_." She muttered as her stomach rumbled again.

"...So am I."

A long silent period passed between them as the pair continued to trudge onward, breaking out of the thick forest and into sprawling fields. A spot of brown caught Naruko's gaze, and she squinted blue eyes in its direction. "Is that a road?"

"I think so." Sasuke replied after a beat, having turned to squint himself. With a mutual shrug, they switched directions and pushed on through the tall grass.

It wasn't much of a road in the end. More like a half-beaten path broken up by alternating brown and green patches. Neither direction seemed to lead to civilization, so Naruko picked a direction at random and tugged Sasuke along behind her.

"Holy hell." The blonde complained as her stomach rumbled again. "Why am I so _hungry_? Is this normal? I feel like I haven't eaten in a week and it's getting worse all the time."

"Complaining won't do any good, usuratonkachi."

" _What_ did you call me?!"

* * *

Naruko was less than impressed by her first glimpse of civilization. Some part of her had expected towering monuments and a bustling orderly city. Instead, she and Sasuke stumbled on a dozen rundown shacks with mould crawling up the sides. A wrinkled old drunk was collapsed against one of the beaten huts, and the blonde stepped away with an expression of distaste.

Out of the corner of her eye she could just see the wrinkle of disgust over Sasuke's brow, and if they were anywhere else Naruko might have grinned and teased him for it. But it didn't seem appropriate for this... wherever they were. Something like despair and a little bit like rage hung so thick in the atmosphere that the blonde nearly choked on it.

 _Run_.

Deep seated instinct whispered up the joints of her spine like cold steel, and the blonde grit her teeth. Repressing a shiver, Naruko turned a suspicious gaze to their surroundings. There was some base bloodthirsty rot to be found, and by the pinched expression of Sasuke's face, her companion had noticed it too.

"Fresh meat, I see."

Sauntering out of the long shadows cast by the dying afternoon light, a long-haired brunette gave the pair of newcomers a roguish smirk. If not for the ropy red scar that obliterated most of his nose and the cruel glint in his eye, he might have even been handsome. "I can tell that you're a pair of newly dead guppies just by those innocent looks on your cute little faces."

Sasuke stiffened behind her, narrowing dark eyes suspiciously. "We're dead then? And what does it matter to you anyway?"

The brunette hung a hand in the folds of his dark green haori, settling the other over the battered hilt of the wakizashi strapped to his side. "Now, now. We're all friends here, ain't we? Name's Seiichi. No need to get rude, guppies."

"Naruko." The blonde cut in, ignoring the Uchiha's sharp look and shrugging an errant shoulder in her companion's direction. "And this is Sasuke."

Sucking in an exaggerated sigh, Seiichi crooked one corner of his lips up in a mocking grin. "Well isn't that all better now? I suppose it'd be my privilege to welcome you two to our own little slice of the afterlife. I'm always trying to be welcoming to the new citizens of our Soul Society."

"What do you want?" Sasuke grunted briskly, a tense muscle jumping in his jaw. "I doubt that anyone in a place like this just helps others out of the so-called goodness of their hearts."

Cocking a brow with a false expression of woundedness, Seichii rocked back on his heels and gave a mournful blink. "Well I suppose if you're insisting that we act all business-like, I'll make ya a deal. I'll give ya a night of food and a roof over your head, and even point you to the next district. All I'm looking for is a night with a piece of Naru-chan's sweet ass. Not too much to ask for, is it?"

It took half a second for that to sink in.

"I refuse!" Naruko shrieked, enraged and offended. That someone would even think that she'd be that kind of girl just pissed her right off. "I'm gonna kick your ass, you shitty bastard!"

Something ugly settled in Seiichi's grey eyes, and that scarred man gave a humourless laugh. "I don't think I was asking, sweetcheeks. Should've just taken the easy way, and we'd have all walked away dandy."

Drawing the wakizashi from his obi with a slow hiss, Seichii just tutted mockingly. "Well I can't complain. We'll give your pretty boy here a nice grave, and the fellas can have their turns with you after I'm done. They were getting a bit pent up anyway."

Looming out of the ramshackle huts that dotted along the beaten path came six brawny thugs. Indistinct tattoos dotted along their muscled arms and over leering cheeks. Most of them were armed with little more than cobbled together clubs, though one had managed to snag a double edged kaiken in his meaty grip.

Naruko was beyond caring about the circling criminals though. Long blonde strands of hair lit up in the dying sunlight like fire, brilliant orange streamers as the young women moved forward in a speeding lunge.

Panicked grey eyes took in the abnormal swiftness, and registered Naruko's obvious latent shinigami potential even as Seiichi hurried to bring his wakizashi up in a defensive slash. It was all for naught, as the blonde ducked under the panicked slice and delivered a full-strength punch to the gang leader's elbow.

Being new to Soul Society as she was, Naruko was more shocked than anyone else when Seiichi's elbow crumpled inward at the strength of her blow with a cracking of bone.

The wakizashi tumbled out of Seiichi's spasming grip, the sound of metal striking the dirt drowned out by the brunette's pained howl. "Shinigami wannabe _bitch_!"

The blade didn't linger on the ground for long, Sasuke having moved a mere breath behind his blonde companion and snatching it up. Spinning in place, Sasuke gave an elegant cut that drove away Seiichi's cursing minions and dissuaded their rushing to their leader's aid. A rushed step in brought him face to face with the tattooed thug brandishing the kaiken, and with a palm strike to the man's stomach he reduced the would-be killer to a retching heap.

Sasuke snatched up the kaiken and tucked it in the folds of his kosode with a sneer.

Naruko didn't spare him even a look, weaving out and around Seiichi's frantic one handed attacks with a fierce grin. She might not know who she really was or where she'd come from, but fighting was written into her very bones. Naruko knew _this_ , because it was the beat of life in her veins and the amazing rush of adrenaline past her thumping heart. She was _alive_.

Swinging around in a low kick, Naruko slammed her heel into Seiichi's calf with another crack of bone. A second scream later accompanied her enemy's collapse to his knees, and another whirl brought her swinging fist directly at his forehead.

She stopped.

Naruko didn't know _why_ she and Sasuke were apparently so much faster than everyone else they'd encountered so far, or why she was able to so easily wreck Seiichi's bones, but she didn't feel like rejecting her blessing. Between being a freak of nature with queer strength or a gang's personal meat toilet, she'd take being the freak every time.

But still, Naruko stopped. The blonde knew if the strike connected, she'd have shattered the front of Seiichi's skull and killed him with her bare hands. And while Seiichi was scum, that didn't mean Naruko had the right to kill him.

Sasuke had no such compunctions, stepping smoothly past and bringing down the wakizashi in an overhead strike that clove Seiichi from right shoulder to left hip. Grey entrails spilled from Seiichi's opened stomach in bloody ropes, making Naruko step back with a curse.

"Fuck, Sasuke, you didn't have to kill him!"

"Sure I did." The Uchiha hummed, turning back around with lethal intent in his dark eyes. "And the rest of you are next."

Naruko swore again, diving to grab the back of her raven companion's kosode to yank him back. The blonde was just a little too slow though, as she hadn't quite managed to prevent him from reducing another thug's throat to a red ruin.

Silence hung in the air, broken only by the last desperate gurgles of a dying man as he futilely attempted to stem that fountain of blood gushing out of his throat. The thug sunk to his knees, paling and giving a final gurgle before flattening entirely with a final thump.

Absolute stillness.

"Well you don't see newcomers with that sort of skill all that often, do you?" A knife cut through the air, slamming into the side of one of Seiichi's former minion's skulls with a wet thunk. Another throwing knife sallied forth, cutting down another gaping thug with a strike to the chest. Then the remainder broke, scrabbling and cursing as they fled into the early night.

Hobbling up the pathway was a wrinkled, white-haired man. It was the drunk, Naruko realized dully as the geezer bent to yank his throwing knives out of the still warm corpses. Who was apparently less drunk and less passed out than she'd assumed.

"What now?" Sasuke grumbled beneath his breath, tightening his fingers around his newly won wakizashi and turning to face the newest possible threat.

"Oh put your sword away before you hurt somebody with that, boy." The older man grumbled, clearing his throat with a great cough and idly spitting the phlegm on Seiichi's cooling corpse. "Not all of us around here are like him, even if most are."

"...Who the hell are you?" Naruko sighed after a moment, rubbing an idle hand over her stomach as the hunger pangs returned with a vengeance. "And why the hell did you just decide to jump in and give us a hand at the end? We could've used the help at the start."

"Ryuuji. And why the hell would I put my own ass on the line for a couple of greenhorns like the two of you? I don't know you, and you don't know me. I don't mind lending a hand to the newly born souls, but I wasn't going to stick my neck out and get killed for you either."

"Fair enough." Sasuke agreed after a beat, pulling the wakizashi's sheath from Seiichi's body and sliding the blade back into its casing.

Squinting down at the bodies littering the pathway with a gimlet brown eye, Ryuuji gave a disdainful sniff. "Better off without those ones in the afterlife. Now come along, I guess. I can answer the questions I'm sure you young ones are just exploding to ask me."

* * *

"The first thing you need to understand is that you've died."

Huffing quietly, Naruko sunk down cross-legged in the dirt. The blonde rolled her eyes as Sasuke hovered suspiciously over her, and reached out to tug sharply on his pant leg until the raven conceded to sit with what she was discovering was his typical ill temperament. "I kind of got that."

Ryuuji eyed them oddly as the older man settled into a seiza position, but seemed to dismiss whatever manners quibble he had in favor of more important topics. "I don't know if you do. You've died. Bought the farm. Kicked the bucket. Exited the World of the Living and rolled the shitty dice to end up in Zaraki."

"Zaraki?" Sasuke raised a brow. "I thought we were in Soul Society. Or was that wrong?"

Grimacing, Ryuuji rubbed at an ache in one of his knees before shrugging. "They're both right. Zaraki is the outermost North District of the Rukongai, which is all of Soul Society outside of the Seireitei – where shinigami live."

This was beginning to sound more and more like a horror story, Naruko decided. Death gods? Soul reapers? "So you've got gods just stomping around here? Why is this place such a dump, then?"

"Wait." Sasuke cut in with a frown. "This is the furthest district of 'Soul Society'. So what's after it? Does it just _end_ , or what?"

"Wait your turn, young brat." Ryuuji grumbled while giving Sasuke a dirty look out of his hazel eyes. "And for your information, no, it doesn't just _stop_. Do you think they've got shinigami running around sending westerners to the afterlife? 'Course not. It just passes on to some other corrupt afterlife government that handles souls in a different part of the world. Anyway," the white haired man sighed, turning back to Naruko. "The shinigami are just normal souls with some power behind them and spend their time ferrying dead souls from the World of the Living to Soul Society. Law keeping comes a bit lower on the list compared to that, so the further away you get from the Seireitei the less shinigami there are patrolling and the more chaotic things get."

Cocking her head, Naruko gave another absent rub of her stomach. "But if there's no law around here, how the hell does anyone get anything to eat? Do they starve to death? _Can_ they starve?"

"So you're hungry, eh? That's good news for you." Ryuuji scratched at his scruffy beard with an expression of satisfaction. "Means you can become a shinigami and get the hell out of this place. Most souls don't get hungry. If you're hungry, it means you've got shinigami potential. Puts you a step above most of the souls in the afterlife, which is why you managed to kick Seiichi's ass so easily. But it also means that yeah, you can starve and die if you don't eat."

Sasuke had heard enough. It was becoming very obvious to him that their options were pretty limited. Either wander about aimlessly, hoping that one of the lawless souls killing each other in Zaraki didn't manage a lucky strike and kill them, or head inward. "How do you become a shinigami?"

Ryuuji smirked. "You'll want to hold on to that will, boy, if you're going to make the cut. Anyone that wants to become a shinigami has to go to the Shinigami Academy, and pass. It's not just about having the potential, you know. Gotta have the skill too, or there'd be a lot less of us starving and killing each other out here. Even if you've got to fight, being a shinigami has its perks."

"I didn't ask for a lecture."

Naruko dug her elbow into Sasuke's side.

"No, I'm sure you weren't looking for one. Well whatever, I'm too old for this. An old geezer like me doesn't know much about getting into the Academy, but I know you've got to make it a lot closer to the Seireitei than you are right now. Head south, and ask for directions, and I suppose you'll get there."

"How long does it take to get there?" Naruko bit the inside of her cheek. Going by how hungry she was, she could still survive the trip if it was a few days, or maybe a week...

"For a trained shinigami? Two weeks or so, I hear. For the rest of us mere mortals? You're looking at closer to six months or so."

"Six months!" Naruko yelped, blonde brows rising to her hairline. "Just how _big_ is this place?"

"Large enough." Ryuuji chuckled. "If it was that quick to get there, don't you think we'd have something resembling a law in these parts?"

"I suppose." The blonde muttered dubiously, blinking in surprise when Sasuke climbed to his feet.

The raven nudged at Naruko with his knee. "Come on." Sasuke ordered lowly, making to turn away before grinding to a reluctant halt. "Thanks." The Uchiha grit out, evidently not used to being anything near polite.

"I'm not done here." Naruko whined, poking at the back of Sasuke's knee and smirked at the slow scowl that built up on his features. "So why don't you just slow that ass down and take a breather."

"It's fine." Ryuuji grunted, rising to his own feet with creaking joints. "Some men just aren't the sort to slow done and smell the roses. If you don't care for it blondie, you should have picked a different lover."

"L-l-lover!?"

Winking roguishly at the twin looks of embarrassment that the teens sported, Ryuuji turned away and pushed at the tattered noren that enclosed his cramped abode. "You two will be better off to at least wait for the morning. Travelling by dark is just asking for trouble with most of the scum that would be wandering around this time of the night. I can show you which huts are empty now that you've run Seiichi's boys out of here."

"You're suspicious."

"Sasuke!" Naruko hissed, jumping to her feet and elbowing her companion in the side.

"No, I can see how he'd be suspicious. Zaraki is full of people that don't have anything else they want to do in life but eat, fight, and fuck. It's certainly a bit strange to see someone just helping someone else out of the 'goodness of their heart' around a place like this."

"Uh, well..."

"Truth be told a few decades back I wasn't any better than the rest of the meatheads that strut around the outer districts, thinking that a sharp blade and half an ounce of skill gives you the right to take anything you want. But then I met _him_. He just a scrawny little brat that had no business amounting to anything, but that didn't stop him from turning ol' Ikki's gang into a mountain of bodies. I was the only one to walk away from that – too busy between some whore's thighs while the guys I fought and killed with were getting massacred for picking a fight they shouldn't have. That kid could have killed me when I came running back in, but he just left me soaked in a puddle of my own piss and went on his way."

Ryuuji turned back to his silent observers, grinning humourlessly and showing off the gap in his upper molars. "A close brush with death like that changes ya. Shakes you up and makes you start wondering what the hell you've been doing with your life. Four hundred years and I never set a foot closer to the Seireitei than the 60th district. Too busy drunk on my own foolishness to pull my head out of my ass and experience something new."

"Get to the point."

" _Sasuke_."

"Don't be so hasty brat, or you'll end up like me. Living with nothing but regrets and wasted time. I suppose that's what it boils down to for me in the end. Just trying to atone for some of the things I've done. So no, I suppose this isn't out of the goodness of my heart. I help newborn souls like you two because it makes me feel a little bit better about myself. There's my selfish interest."

Sasuke's dark eyes stared with an undecipherable gaze at the elderly male before the Uchiha clenched his teeth and sighed. "Fine, I'll believe you for now. But I'll be watching."

Shaking her head ruefully, Naruko settled her hands on her hips and huffed. "Well now that tall, dark, and broody here is satisfied that not everyone is out to murder us in our sleep, can we please go to bed or something? I'm tired and _hungry_."

Ryuuji coughed under his breath at the frustrated look Sasuke favoured his companion with, grinning with tolerant amusement. The former criminal led them out into the night, shivering a touch at the slightly chill breeze before pointing a few of the rundown shacks out for the newborn souls.

"Any of those four would be fine to sleep in for the night. You might even luck out and find a bit of food still lying around. Seiichi and the boys didn't _need_ to eat, but food is still something that any regular soul can enjoy."

Sasuke grunted wordlessly before stalking towards the nearest hut and sticking his head through the noren. Naruko and Ryuuji watched him move from building to building before an errant thought occurred to the blonde.

"Oi jii-san. I was wondering if humans are the only souls that make it here. Do animals get souls? What about creatures like kitsune? Did you ever hear of any souls with, I dunno, fox ears or something?"

Ryuuji's hazel eyes tracked knowingly to the ragged makeshift bow crowning Naruko's messy blonde strands. "Yes and no. Things like kitsune or other demons don't actually exist, as far as I know. That being said, there are rumours that there's more out there than regular plain souls like me. Sinners cursed with the form of a wolf are one tale. There's also talk that the Shihōin clan are born with cat parts, and that they learn to turn completely human or completely animal as they get more skilled. It's all just rumour, though I wouldn't be surprised if there was some truth to it."

"Stop wasting time out in the dark, idiot."

"Looks like your sweetheart is calling."

"He's _not_ my sweetheart!"


	2. Breeding Desperation

His feet were bleeding. They must have been, because Sasuke couldn't conceive of any other reason for the wet slap of flesh on grass that accompanied every step he took. Stalking through the dark night, the Uchiha bit down a curse every time the silence was broken by the damp slapping.

If the quiet air continued to be disturbed by his moving, someone would wake up. And if someone woke up, Sasuke would have to kill them. It wouldn't have bothered him if the life he'd be ending was that of an unrepentant criminal, even if Naruko seemed to have an odd attachment to the value of their miserable lives. But as far as the raven knew, the two men dozing fitfully in the corner of the hut were innocent.

Innocent, which was something he couldn't claim to be any longer. Zaraki was a lot larger than he'd have anticipated, and after a week of travelling they were just now approaching the border with Kusajishi district. Another three days, and they'd cross into the 79th district. Which was _grand_ , Sasuke supposed, except they'd managed to run out of what little food they'd scrabbled together two days ago.

So Sasuke had resorted to waiting until Naruko dozed off in whatever hiding place they'd chosen to find refuge in for the night, and then sneaking off to burgle more supplies. Barely a week into his reborn existence, and Sasuke had already become a criminal. It made him feel filthy.

Better to be filthy and keep Naruko alive though, than to be squeaky clean and have to bury her corpse. Sasuke wasn't all that attached to his _own_ life, somewhere in the buried recesses of his memory he knew that in life he'd been little more than a sinner, and dying again wouldn't have been undeserved. But Naruko was bright and unstained and didn't deserve to have her afterlife snuffed out, which meant that Sasuke couldn't die before making sure she had made it someplace she was happy and safe.

Bending down in a slow movement, Sasuke kept dark eyes focused on the sleeping men as he carefully snatched up the few bruised apples they'd been keeping. The Uchiha tucked the fruit into the inner fold of his new –stolen- forest green yukata, giving a quick scan of the room before slipping back out into the night.

In his own way, Sasuke had to congratulate the men he'd just stolen from. It was a stroke of intelligence to layer sharp broken stones all over ground just inside the doorway of their hut at night. The sudden cutting pain would startle a less skilled thief into a pained shout, giving him away. The Uchiha was more self-controlled than that, but come morning his bloody footprints would showcase his poor deeds.

He bit down on the inside of his lips until he could taste the slightest copper tang to contain the pain as he rushed through the fields of Zaraki. Sasuke took a short detour through a stream to throw off any attempts to follow his faint crimson tracks back into the thickly wooded forest before he allowed himself to return to where his blonde companion was sleeping.

Casting a quick glance to make sure Naruko hadn't woken up, Sasuke dumped the bruised green apples that were his bounty on the leaves and returned to the slight hollow where he'd dug a makeshift bed at the start of the evening. Morning would come soon enough, and even he needed sleep.

* * *

Sasuke wasn't as sneaky as he thought he was.

Sinking her teeth into the mottled green and brown surface of one of the apples that the Uchiha had 'found' during his nightly wanderings, Naruko thoughtfully observed her dozing companion with judging blue eyes.

Contrary to what Sasuke seemed to think, the blonde wasn't an idiot. Naruko had known the first time food had appeared during her nightly rest that the Uchiha had stolen it. Oddly, her internal rush of moral indignation had been rather muted. She didn't like the thought of stealing, but they needed to eat. Could one really blame orphans for breaking the law to stay alive?

Because in the end, that was what Naruko and Sasuke were. Orphans with no memories and no bonds save the inexplicable one they shared. There was no one to trust or rely on than each other, and the only way to survive the cruel heaven they'd passed into was to do whatever was needed, rather than what was wanted.

Sucking the sweet fruit juice from her fingertips, Naruko kicked the second apple towards her friend. The fruit rolled to a stop near Sasuke's hip, and satisfied the blonde snatched up the last apple. Tracing over the rough middle of it with her elongated fingernails, Naruko sung her claws into the green flesh and pulled it into approximate halves.

Naruko gobbled down half of the apple, taking most of the edge of her hunger. Ignoring the way her mouth watered in hope of biting into the other half of it, Naruko beat down the selfish little voice that told her to eat it in favour of crawling over to Sasuke's dozing form.

"Oi, wake up lazy bones."

The moment between resting and wakefulness was instantaneous, Sasuke's pale eyelids rolling back to reveal sharp dark grey. "What do you want?" The Uchiha grumbled, taking in the still early morning light.

"I ate one of the apples. The other one is yours and I split this one down the middle. Eat your half before it gets all dried out or something."

"I don't want it you glutton." Sasuke's eyes slid shut, with just the slightest beginnings of dark bags in his sockets belaying his need for sleep. "Eat it yourself, I'm not that hungry."

The Uchiha's stomach rumbled, echoingly loud in the quiet morning air.

"Not hungry, eh?" Naruko snorted, rolling the half apple between her fingers. "Then I guess your tummy is just saying hello, is it?"

"Go _away_ , Naruko."

The blonde was silent for such a long beat that Sasuke thought she'd given up and left him alone. Honestly, the idiot had so many hang-ups on being generous and nice that it baffled the Uchiha. Regardless, hopefully he could snatch another hour or so of rest before they continued their journey.

Naruko shoved the apple in his mouth.

"Mmmph!"

Well so much for that.

"Now you _have_ to eat it, unless you want to have an indirect kiss with little ol' me, Sasu-chan."

Idiot.

* * *

Lank strands of midnight hair trailed down the sides of his face and down his back. Blowing his overhanging bangs out of his face with a huff, the man grimaced. The expression tugged at the myriad scars that criss-crossed his features, mangling his face into a patchwork of tan skin and old wounds.

Tightening his grip around the battered blade that was clenched in his meaty fist, the man gave a ferocious glare that sent the people around him scattering away like ants. They didn't know his name, but they sure knew his face, and the effortless way he killed so many struck fear into their weak little hearts.

No one knew his name, because he didn't have one. He was nameless, just like the ragged blade that he'd pried off a dead man's corpse and taken for his own. It was a strange kind of pain. The man hated it when he looked into the reflecting surface of a tranquil pond. Hated the sight of that familiar face that had no identity. Hated how he'd existed for years that he'd never quite managed to count, day in and day out without the essential recognition that made someone a human.

The only thing that dulled the edge of that pain was battle. The rush of steel on steel and the high shriek of physical oblivion as adrenaline beat through every vein and shining blades spilt steaming crimson. He could forget himself and lack of purpose in those heart pounding moments; rationality only returning when he'd reduced another person's existence to being even more meaningless than his.

Snatching an orange up from where some cowardly soul had dropped it as they fled from him in terror, the man smirked toothily and bit right through the skin. Citrus tang exploded across his tongue as the man gulped it down in snarling mouthfuls. Food was just fuel to be burnt for energy to fight more.

"Out of the way."

The man blinked in surprise, almost wondering if he'd imagined the voice. It had been a very long time since anyone had spoken willingly to him, much less so boldly. Licking the last bit of citrus pulp from his thumb, he peered down through lank strands.

Two new faces stared back up at him. The boy who had spoken had his face screwed up into a glare, where the girl wore a much friendlier expression. There was a similar hardness to their eyes though, and the man's scarred lips stretched into a grin. It had been a couple of days since he'd last run into anyone with more in their veins but water.

"Let's fight!"

"Yeah no, I think we'll pass." The blonde girl spoke up, whiskered face morphing into incredulity. "You're a big guy."

"For you." The raven muttered, cutting off when the blonde dug an elbow into his side.

"Anyway." Clapping her hands together with an exaggerated expression of sadness, the blonde just shook her head. "I don't think it'd be much fun for you anyway. So we'll just mosey on by here." Then wrapping a hand in the sleeve of her companion's yukata, the blonde tugged the taciturn boy down the street.

The man let them go. They were still new souls - he could smell it on them – and they didn't even have much in the way of weapons. Give them a couple of years, and they'd shape up. Then he'd fight them. Predators seemed to find one another anyway.

* * *

Kusajishi was little different than Zaraki. Frankly, Naruko didn't see the reasoning behind separating them into two different districts. They were equally lawless, equally rundown, and equally violent. But that was what government bureaucrats seemed to be for – pointlessly pushing paper around and doing things that didn't actually need to be done.

Whatever.

Rolling back the trailing sleeves of her 'new' navy blue yukata, Naruko yanked out her kaiken. The little knife had served her well since the day she and Sasuke had won it in the little spat with Seiichi's wannabe gang. Something about the sight of naked iron – even in such small amounts – seemed to dissuade people from giving them trouble.

Hence why several men that had been eying her and Sasuke with proprietary gazes when they stepped into the shanty town turned away with muted grumbles. That made six fights her little blade had prevented, which was why Naruko maintained it with all the due care of a holy relic.

The blonde didn't like killing. She'd done it – slamming the battered kaiken in between a man's ribs when he'd pinned her against a tree on the third day of their journey. Naruko had killed, and would eventually kill again. But that didn't mean she needed to go looking for it like Sasuke probably would if she wasn't around to keep him on a leash.

Honestly, it was like her friend went from grimly peaceable to gruesome murder and back again in the space of half a moment. The ease with which the Uchiha cut people down would have alarmed her if she wasn't entirely sure Sasuke would never raise a violent hand towards her. Grumble and curse and give in to the urge for a half-hearted smack yes, but never a strike to wound or kill.

Shaking her head, Naruko ran and errant hand through her golden bangs before giving the raven a rueful look out of half-lidded blue orbs. "Wasn't that so much easier than strutting around _looking_ for a fight? I wonder who I pissed off to end up as your keeper?"

"Knowing you, you probably volunteered to me around being a nuisance forever."

"Bastard."

* * *

A month later, Sasuke was forced to stop. Collapsing by the side of the road with a huff, the Uchiha scowled down at his shaking hands before forcing them to settle in his lap.

Naruko dropped down beside him in the dust, pink tongue lolling out as the blonde sprawled on her back. "You giving up now, bastard?" she huffed, chest rising and falling in quick strokes. "Should have known your pansy ass was gonna slow us down?"

"Idiot."

A month and a half of constant, furtive travelling since their rebirth into Soul Society had taken its toll. No matter how good Sasuke was at stealing, communities were just too far from one another for it to provide them with steady sustenance. Their cheeks were hollowed in from the lack of nutrition, accompanied by the sinking in of their stomachs as they grew ever leaner from the starvation.

When Sasuke had woken up in Zaraki, he'd been lithe and powerful. The fine features of his face were the envy of any pretty whore's get, and the chiselled muscles of his limbs and abdomen told the tale of a trained warrior at home on the battlefield. Now lying on his back, he could only curse the wasting away of that strength into a stringy meanness. Hunger had done what battle could not, and beaten him down.

Naruko was in a similar state of atrophy. The soft curves of her body and the faintly visible muscles of her abdomen had worn into full visibility. Where there was once fat was only muscle and bone, and she could count the outlines of her ribs in her reflection on the rare occasion she was able to bathe.

Brushing a bony hand across his sunken eyes, Sasuke sucked in a whistling breath before forcing himself back to his aching feet. "Come on. We need to find a place to stay until we can get our strength back. I'm not going to end up face-down in a ditch somewhere because you were too stubborn to quit when you were ahead."

"...Help me up."

Reaching out, Sasuke grabbed Naruko's blindly groping hand and hauled her to her feet. Blue eyes blinked blearily as she stumbled into him, before stepping back with a muttered apology.

"Let's go." The Uchiha pulled at the blonde's hand, coal eyes scanning the distant road for signs of life or civilization. It had been gradual, but the further in from Zaraki they came, the incrementally more civilized the people became. The 80th district was little more than murder and rape. The 68th by contrast, seemed more like a loosely organized criminal underworld.

Gambling, drugs, and prostitution were rampant, with a vague semblance of order kept by local crime bosses and would-be warlords. The corrupt little fiefdoms they carved out rarely stretched further than a town, though particularly ambitious yakuza had managed to sway several nearby gangs into recognizing their sovereignty.

If this was supposed to be Heaven, Sasuke had no desire to know what Hell looked like. Apparently, when one reached the 60th District, actual shinigami kept order instead of local strongmen. The Uchiha snorted. He'd believe that when he saw it.

Silence hung between them as the pair stumbled along further down the beaten road. Once, the air would have been filled with half-hearted insults and complaints, but now all they had was just barely enough energy to keep moving. One foot in front of the other. Step-by-step.

Naruko's hand was thin and mildly sweaty in his, Sasuke noted dully as he tightened his grip. Reflexively, her hand tightened back around his. The hand clasp was bony and a bit clammy and in other circumstance might have even felt a little bit gross, but if they were at the end of the tether – this was how Sasuke would choose to die. On his feet with his only companion right behind him.

"I think that's a village up there." Naruko's voice bubbled over his numb mind, forcing the Uchiha to raise his head and peer down the road with squinted eyes. Breaking up the distant expanse of blue and green was a faint smudge of brown. It could be buildings, or if they were unlucky it could simply be a bald hill taunting them.

"I see it." Sasuke agreed roughly, swallowing down a glob of saliva to wet his dry throat. "We'll get closer, and then find a place nearby to hide out. I'd rather not take the risk of being seen in town."

"Aren't you being just a little bit paranoid?"

"No. Kurokaze might not be Zaraki, but that's only because someone's imposed order on all the criminality. People don't rape women in the streets. They just snatch the pretty ones up at night and drug them up until they're so desperate for another hit they sell themselves. People don't cut you down for looking at them the wrong way. They do it because you're working for a rival crime lord. It's not safe." _Especially for you_ went unsaid. Naruko would have bristled if Sasuke had voiced that concern, but her opinion didn't make it any less untrue.

The worst that would happen to Sasuke would be that someone decided to try and pressure him into working in a gang. The Uchiha wouldn't even protest it that much, honestly. It would put food in his stomach for long enough to build his strength back up, and then he could continue onward. If he had to break a few faces to get a decent meal, it was no sweat off his back.

Naruko was a blonde in a world where most of the people around them had brown and black shades of hair. Further, the exotic whisker birthmarks that stretched over her cheeks added to her unique female flair. Not to mention that even outside of those features, Naruko was a beautiful woman when she wasn't half starved to death. The fox ears were really just the cherry on top that would upgrade her from 'ideal sex slave' to a 'must have' one.

Which was why the Uchiha almost always insisted on getting in touch with civilization when they needed to on his own. Naruko could talk to all the people she wanted once they managed to reach the more orderly parts of the Rukongai. Until then however, she would just have to quietly cool her heels outside of town.

Not that Sasuke would just let anyone get their hands on Naruko, but the Uchiha wasn't invincible, galling as it was to admit his weakness. And while it didn't matter how many centuries it would take him to find her again and destroy anyone that hurt her in _that_ way, the raven would much rather swallow his pride and avoid any fight that could lead to such a future for her.

"Come on." Naruko cut in, drawing Sasuke back out of his fevered thoughts. They were _much_ closer to the brown smudge, which had turned out to be a town after all. The blonde tugged him to the side of the road, long used to the usual drill. "Let's find some place to crash."

* * *

Crouching down on calloused feet, Sasuke poked his head around the corner and quickly slunk away. There were still guards out front, lounging about lazily and content with their own superiority. It was to be expected - given that Ueda Daisuke had ruled the little town with an iron fist for the past four decades – for the yakuza to consider something like someone stealing from _them_ to be outside of the realm of possibility.

The yakuza had never met someone like him.

Springing up from his crouch, the Uchiha pulled himself onto the roof in a silent movement. The wasted muscles of his arms and core screamed with the pain of exertion, but Sasuke forced it down and away. _He_ was the master of his own flesh. Not the subconscious fear of more pain.

Sasuke kept low to the wood tiles of the roof, sliding his bare feet over the weather stained panels and sticking to the darkest patches. It was unlikely that anyone would be able to see him, but the Uchiha remained cautious. Carelessness led to discovery, and discovery would lead to death.

Settling on the further, darkest corner of the roof, Sasuke whipped out the kaiken that had served Naruko well since arriving in the afterlife. The Uchiha jammed it into the cracks between the roof tiles, carefully cutting away layer after layer of roofing as silently as possible until he was left with a man-sized hole in the roof to shimmy through.

He shot one last cautionary glance over the front where Ueda's two guards gossiped in rough but amiable tones, Sasuke dropped through the roof and gave a prompt silent curse. Two feet over and he'd have landed ass-first in a barrel of bokken.

Turning away from the collection of wooden blades, Sasuke peered through the dark shadows of the gambling den. He was lucky that for whatever reason Ueda had closed down the den for building repairs, since otherwise the Uchiha was sure it would be full of lowlifes and addicts at all hours of the day.

A frown wrote itself onto his features as he took in the garments that lay thrown haphazardly about the room. Sasuke wasn't overly picky about his own appearance, so the blue hakama and kosode didn't bother him all that much. But the only clothes that he could see that would fit a woman properly were too fine and floral to give to Naruko.

Dressing her in such would scream 'prostitute!' to the entire world.

Whatever.

Sasuke hurriedly stripped, tossing his travel strained clothes in a ball before pulling on the new clean fabric. There were even tabi and waraji to go over his long-since calloused feet. It was the first time since he'd been reborn in Soul Society that the Uchiha had beheld footwear. Not even the yakuza strutting about the town wore it.

Which meant that they were likely destined for Ueda himself.

Fuck him. A lowlife like that deserved to be stolen from.

Rolling up a second set of men's' clothes for Naruko – better to dress her baggy and dull than like a whore – Sasuke gave a quick final scan of the room. Nothing caught his eye, so with Naruko's kaiken clenched in a white knuckled grip Sasuke snuck from the room.

The halls were similarly empty, with not a soul in sight or in the range of his hearing as Sasuke peeked into room after room. The vast majority of them were disappointing, with little more than tables to gamble at or futon to fuck a whore in.

Then Sasuke entered the last room on the right, and promptly drooled. There was so much _food_. Ripe red apples and thick green watermelon. Freshly baked bread stacked neatly in rows. There was even dried meat hanging on a rack.

Crossing the room at near reckless speed, the Uchiha began to stuff anything he could get his hands on into his mouth. Soft bread and salted pork disappeared down his gullet in a flash. Apples crunched audibly Sasuke bit into them. The raven utterly gorged himself, only remembering near the end that after periods of starvation gorging is precisely what one should _not_ do.

Sasuke resisted the urge to curse, and resigned himself to having to constantly fight down the urge to vomit for the rest of the evening. Stealing a hand towel, Sasuke selected as much dried meat and fruit as he could cram into the makeshift sack before turning to leave. He'd overstayed his welcome, and it would be best to get the hell out before someone decided to patrol through the den.

* * *

Naruko tucked the stolen kitsune mask in the folds of her yukata and turned away from the blanketed stall. It was a pity that she could see the painstaking detail and effort put into carving every festive piece – to have such an innocent business in a place like Kurokaze required exceptional goods – and whoever owned the carved mask stall would be put out at having lost it.

...But she wanted it, damn it. Beneath all the hardness that the outer districts of the Rukongai tried daily to beat into her, the blonde was an easy-going gal that wanted to have some fun. She wanted to make friends, and laugh with them. Naruko craved basic human contact and the enjoyable times that would come from something as silly as dressing up in exaggerated demon masks at a festival. It was stupid and wasteful and risky, but taking the red and white mask for her own was an attempt at capturing a piece of that innocent fun she wasn't allowed to have.

Stealing was wrong and she wouldn't want to have something she had worked so painstakingly hard on stolen away by a thief in the night. That was why Naruko had left the collection of clips and beads that Sasuke had brought back for her during his nightly forays. Maybe they weren't as valuable as the mask she'd 'traded' them for, but Naruko didn't have much else to try and settle the debt with.

And as guilty as it made her feel, returning the mask wasn't even an option any longer. It was still in the dark middle of the night, but she'd already given up enough sleep to satisfy her curious urge to wander and the boiling frustration with her companion-cum-guardian that had refused to let her explore any of the towns they'd been in on her own. Doubling back would only cost her more precious rest, and she and Sasuke needed to slip away before talk of thieves rocked the town the next morning.

Slipping through the shadows, Naruko tracked wandering drunken yakuza as they stumbled on through the dark with narrow blue eyes. Contrary to what Sasuke seemed to think of her, the blonde wasn't a helpless innocent. Stealing came just as naturally as fighting did to her. Naruko's mind may have forgotten what it was like to steal food or just for fun, but her body seemed to remember perfectly.

Keep low to the ground, moving carefully but quickly. Land on the heel and roll the foot to the toe along the outer sides. Watch where her feet were landing. Avoid twigs, or grass, or rocks. Make no noise, and leave no tracks. And always be aware of the surroundings. Don't be afraid to wait ten minutes for safe travel. Stick to the shadows and be swift. It was almost a game, and Naruko's body was expert at it.

In life, she must have lived a life of thieving and deprivation. Perhaps not always, but at least for long enough to develop the right habits to steal with.

Naruko stepped around the tall grass of an untended field as she left the circle of light cast by the town's torches. Blue orbs adjusted instantly to the night, expanding wide and alert are the black circle of her pupil. The moon as merely a crescent, barely casting enough light to be seen by most. But for the fox-girl, it was enough to navigate through the rolling hills and back to the hideaway that she had picked.

Wind rustled.

Blonde furred ears twitched at the noise.

Sasuke exploded out of the bushes, rushing directly at the blonde only to skid to a stop a mere breath away. The Uchiha's dark eyes twitched in their sockets, shrunken pupils twitching as Sasuke eyelids peeled as far back as physically possible.

It was honestly a bit weird.

" _Where_ the hell have you been?" The raven seemed to muster after a moment, voice rushing out in a strained hiss. Iron bands settled over Naruko's biceps as Sasuke grasped them with bruising force, shaking the blonde until the world seemed to jerk about for her.

Pressing both hands against Sasuke's sternum, Naruko scowled and shoved him back. "Hey now, just _relax_. I went into town for a bit on my own. I'm a big girl now _tou-san_ , I think I can look after myself for an hour without you breathing down my neck all the time."

"No, you _can't_."

"Asshole!" Naruko growled back, pushing past the Uchiha and ramming her shoulder into his with a huff. "I don't need some overprotective bastard hanging around all the time telling me what I can and can't do. If you don't like that, then you can just _get out of here_."

Sasuke's lips peeled back, an acidic reply bubbling up in his throat as he reached out and yanked at Naruko's shoulders. Dark brows lowered as the blonde spun about, golden strands floating freely and blue eyes glinting dangerously in the moonlight.

" _I will always be there for you, even if only as an obstacle to be overcome."_

" _I'm sorry, this is the last time."_

"– _Died with a smile on his face."_

" _No matter what you become, I will always love you."_

The voices flashed across the storm of his mind like quicksilver, appearing and gone in an instant and leaving behind only a terrible sense of emptiness and red pressure. Pain spiked across Sasuke's brain as forgotten memories _tore_ at him for some release he was unable to grant, until the only sound the Uchiha was aware of was the pounding of his pulse in his ears and the slow ragged quality of his own voice.

"Don't you ever –" Tore out of his throat with all the roughness of gravel and a half-formed thought. "Don't you ever..." Do something so reckless again. Dirty her own hands for a bauble. Walk away with anger and poison still filling the air between them.

_Don't you leave me behind too._

"Sasuke? Shit, _Sasuke_." Warm hands ghosted frankly over his cheekbones, unsure touches slowly beating down the disorientated pain and panic. "Don't freak out on me, _fuck_."

Blue filled the world, slipping warmth and concern and friendship through the cracks in his heart that Sasuke hadn't known he'd had. Something a little bit like forgiveness and a little bit like salvation assuaged that jagged edges of his splintered emotions, and almost unwillingly the Uchiha found himself descending from fevered confusion down to tranquil serenity.

"I'm here you bipolar bastard, and I'm not going anywhere. I was just mad. We're two peas in a pod, you and me. I'm not gonna leave you behind, so you better not leave me behind anymore either."


	3. Breaking the Mahjong Bar

Conversation became painfully stilted for several days after Sasuke's sudden near-meltdown. Once the pressure had ebbed away, it became quite the wound to his pride for the Uchiha to admit that he had been frightfully needy in the moment. As for Naruko, the blonde teen struggled with the random flashes of embarrassment that the thought of being _needed_ conjured up.

Thus the erstwhile pair did what they did best, and pretended that nothing had ever happened.

"Oi. Found one for you too." Naruko tossed a burlap wrapped bundle directly at Sasuke's face.

Jerking back, the Uchiha caught the roll with a sigh. Sasuke scowled at the blonde, dark brows dipping sharply in displeasure before he turned his attention to the sac in his hands. Fiddling with the coarse drawstring, he yanked the bag open and dumped its contents into his palm.

Porcelain smattered with feathers and paint stared back up at him through empty sockets. A yellow beak dipped with black paint and white bands around the eyes were the only portions of the caricature free from feathers and carving. The rest of the surface was grooved into deep impressions of mottled brown and black feathers, with a crowning plumage of true feathers glazed all along the upper rims.

Sasuke snorted.

Naruko kicked him in the shin. "Don't be such a bastard. Learn to appreciate the finer things in life. Besides, now we match!" Whipping out her own white and red kitsune mask, the blonde gave a foxy grin before slipping it on her face. "I hope you're ready to take a stand against all these assholes that make all their money off other peoples' suffering."

"Firstly," The Uchiha began blandly. "A _fox_ and a _hawk_ don't _match_. They're entirely different species that in the real world don't have much in the way of interactions with each other, if any." Turning the mask over in his hands, Sasuke absently rubbed a thumb over the smooth inner surface. "And secondly, when the hell did I ever agree to become a vigilante?"

"How can you expect to be a shinigami if you're not willing to spit in the face of evil?"

"Did someone drop you on your head as a child?"

* * *

"I still can't believe that I'm doing this." Sasuke grumbled, crouched in the shadows beside an excited Naruko. Slipping the hawk mask over his face, the Uchiha snapped the band holding it in place before turning his gaze up the street.

The pair had moved on from the town that Ueda Daisuke ruled with an iron fist to new thieving grounds several days past, but Naruko insistence had brought the pair back to the site of their first theft in Kurokaze.

Unlike the night that Sasuke had slipped in through the roof to pilfer supplies to satisfy their basic needs, the street was bright with akachōchin. The paper lanterns that swung in the faint night breeze cast a reddish glare all across the street and painted the gambling den with a crimson glow. Rather than two sleepy thugs, eight alert and bristling yakuza circled the house of vice with dour expressions.

A customer wandered up the street, giving a cowed bow when one of the tattooed guards favoured the young male with a foul glare. "Pardon me." He mumbled, slipping in through the front door to be greeted by a raucous chorus of shouts.

"You ready?" Naruko breathed, voice slightly muffled behind the kitsune mask. Blue orbs peered out from the eye sockets as the blonde turned to face her companion, worried and challenging all at once.

"Fine."

"Let's go!"

Charging out of the shadows like a blue and gold missile, Naruko grinned beneath the painted mouth of her mask. This was foolish and reckless and in the end, probably useless, but life wasn't about being beaten down and containing oneself within a cage of expectations and might-have-been. The Uzumaki was tired of hiding away and pretending to be fine with how the world was just to get through the day.

If she died, at least she died on her feet screaming at the injustice of the world rather than in her bed full of regrets.

Sasuke was just a step behind her, and the combined beat of their feet on the dirt caught the attention of the nearest hired muscle.

Confusion flooded the tattooed face as the man took in the sight of two _imbeciles_ running up the street clad in festival masks. "What the fuck?" he gaped, mouth hanging open until Naruko slammed it shut with a brutal uppercut.

Shocked silence hung in the air as a pair of yakuza rounded the corner, taking in the sight of their comrade slowly tumbling down to lay flat on his back. Looming over the unconscious man was a wild-maned blonde woman in a kitsune mask, cracking her knuckles with all the leisure in the world. The hawk masked man hovering behind her was almost normal in comparison to her absurd nonchalance.

"You boys gonna stand there are day or are you gonna come get some?"

They traded uncertain looks before their faces hardened into resolute expressions. Tearing out their wakizashi, the pair of yakuza stomped over to the pair of masked strangers. "I don't know who the hell you are missy, but you're shit out of luck if you think that we're just gonna let you go."

Naruko's head tilted to the side as she weighed the burly newcomers, before one shoulder rose in a bored shrug. "Have fun with these ones, Taka." Leaving the hawk-masked man to unsheathe his own blade with a grunted curse, the blonde barrelled on through the doors to Ueda's gambling den with a bang.

Rolling his eyes at the Uzumaki's antics, Sasuke gripped tight around the hilt of his wakizashi and brought the short sword up to a ready position, free hand hanging loose and out of the way. "Come along then, I'll cut you down right here." He promised, dark eyes filling the sockets of his mask like pitiless voids.

The yakuza pair opened with echoing yells, stepping forward accompanied by the howl of their voices. One came at the Uchiha straight on, blade held steady and aiming at the raven haired man's chest. The other circled to the side, short blade glimmering orange beneath the red lamps as he struck in a horizontal slice.

"Disappointing." Sasuke clucked his tongue, stepping back and watching with disgust as the poorly trained swordsmen ended up tangling their strikes together with a curse and scatter of sparks. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, he moved back in with his wakizashi and rammed the point home through the throat of the yakuza that had thought to take him from the side.

The gangster barely had time to comprehend that shard of metal in his throat and the burning pain filling the flesh there before Sasuke drug the blade back out. Red spurted messily and drenched the other yakuza in a splatter of copper-scented fluid as the Uchiha opened the man's throat.

"Hideo!" The still living thug screamed as his partner collapsed to his knees, clenching at his throat with a wide eyed expression. Apoplectic fury exploded across his tattooed features as the nameless yakuza turned away from Hideo's spasming body, only to be met with a lance of steel through the lung.

"Trash."

Watching coldly as the second yakuza choked on his own blood, the Uchiha was just barely able to witness the hired muscle's last word as it bubbled up from pale lips in a burst of crimson froth. " _Demon_."

Sasuke snorted, planting his foot on the dying thug's chest and shoving the yakuza off the point of his wakizashi. Blood streaked over the mirror-bright steel, testament to his freshly committed murders, and the raven turned away.

Those shouts had been loud, and someone else would be rushing to answer the call and die soon enough.

* * *

"I hope you guys are prepared for an asskicking, 'cause ready or not, here I come!"

Compared to the clean night air outside, the atmosphere of the gambling den was thick and smoky. Tobacco fumes mingled with the smouldering vapours of opium and the reek of alcohol to create a dizzying stench that knocked the wind from Naruko's lungs like a kick in the gut.

If the blonde had known how bad it was going to stink, she'd have considered letting Sasuke handle the inside while she did the fighting outside.

Grimacing behind her mask, Naruko turned to the dumbfounded bartender with a hidden smirk. "I don't suppose you'll be a good sort and bag up all the cash for me, would you? No?" The blonde twitched her neck to each side with deafening cracks. "Well that's just my style."

Naruko kicked her foot out, launching a bar stool in the air. Three times it tumbled end over end until the blonde's clawed hand wrapped around one of its legs and _swung_. Wood splintered in a trail of blood and a lost tooth as the fox-masked woman smashed the stool directly into the side of the bartenders head.

"Well are you all gonna stand there, or are we gonna _fight_?"

Screams broke out as several men launched to their feet, abandoning their gambling games to fumble for knives and swords. Older customers and garishly painted prostitutes dove beneath the tables in a cacophony of shrieks.

Rubbing the side of her head with a sigh, Naruko narrowed her eyes. "Hey, hey, you're gonna put my eardrums out making a bunch of noise like that."

"Bitch! Do you think this is some kind of joke? Who the hell do you think you are?"

The blonde ducked an arc of slashing steel with a lazy shrug, planting her heel in the chest of a charging yakuza with a huff. "Looks pretty serious to me." Kicking the man clear across the room in a single movement, the blonde turned slitted blue eyes on the man that had just tried to take her head off.

"And I think I'm your executioner."

Bone cracked as Naruko seized the yakuza's wrist, dragging the man forward and snapping the back of his elbow done over her shoulder. The joint gave way like a limp noodle, making the thug scream and pass out from the pain of it.

Snorting in disgust, she turned her masked face towards the shocked remainder of the room. "For someone that makes a living off exploiting other people, it didn't take all that much to take him out." Naruko cast a quick glance down at the table nearest to her where a painted woman cowered with tears of fear tracking down her face.

Beneath all the makeup were the half-starved features of a girl that didn't look a day older than fourteen living years. Scars left from shackles and repeating whippings criss-crossed the pale skin of her arms, and the chest visible beneath the gaping folds of her floral kimono was wasted from drugs and lack of nutrition.

It made Naruko feel a thousand years old. Living or dead, in the mortal world or the ageless afterlife, it was all apparently the same. A dog-eat-dog world where the unlucky innocent were devoured by hungry predators and enslaved endlessly. Why did it have to be that way? Why wouldn't anyone just take a fucking _stand_ and say enough was enough?

Fine. If they were too afraid to stand up and fight for a better world, Naruko would lend them her courage. And if they were too weak to make a difference, then the Uzumaki would lend them her strength.

"Go." Naruko ordered the girl softly, incongruently gentle compared to her earlier aggressive bravado. "You can do better than this." Biting the inside of her cheek when the girl only shook harder, the Uzumaki turned away.

"Now then." The previous confident violence flooded into Naruko's tone, and vaulting over a table. "Who feels like telling me where I can find Ueda Daisuke? First one to pony up gets to walk out of here. The rest of you are gonna have to crawl."

* * *

Stepping away from the rapidly spreading puddle of blood, Sasuke frowned beneath his porcelain hawk mask. The Uchiha flicked the crimson decorating his wakizashi off the blade in a jerk of the wrist and sheathing it before turning away from the thirteenth body and back to scanning the night.

None of these half-trained thugs had the will or skill to oppose him, and cutting them to pieces was as simple as dicing a block of cheese.

Straw rustled as a man barreled out of the gambling den behind him. Sasuke took in the man at a glance. Whoever he was, he'd done something to piss Naruko off. Little else could explain why the man's left arm was dangling limply or the pale expression of mingled pain and fear he wore.

"Annoying woman." Sasuke grumbled beneath his breath as he rushed forward. "Leaving me to clean up after her messes." Wrapping his hands around the yakuza's head, the Uchiha deafened his ears to the man's desperate pleading in favour of wrenching the man's head about with an echoing snap.

The scent of urine and stool flooded the air as Sasuke broke the yakuza's neck, the man's bowels loosening in death. Moving back with a cough of disgust, the Uchiha retreated up the steps to the den and gave a smirk of amusement at the faint crashes and shouts that reached his ear.

"Whoo, I really went to town on them." Naruko's voice greeted airily as the fox-masked woman pushed through the flapping noren. Her left hand carried a bulging sac full of what Sasuke would assume was money, but her right was painted with blood and gore from her fingertips up to her elbow.

Raising a brow behind the surface of his mask, Sasuke moved a significant gaze down to her crimson coated arm. "I didn't expect you to kill anyone." He pointed out, taking in the way her bright blue orbs darkened through the sockets of her kitsune mask.

"Well you know what they say. No plan is a good plan, or something like that."

"I highly doubt that anyone says that."

"Well I just did." Shoving the bag into Sasuke's arms, Naruko stuck her clean hand in the folds of her yukata and drew out a stained green scrap of cloth. Scrubbing at the congealing gore that coated her right arm, the blonde women stepped around the cooling corpses of the men that Sasuke had murdered and down the street.

After checking the inside of the sac to ensure that _yes_ , it contained money rather than something absurd like a collection of sweets or ramen, the Uchiha hurried after her. They moved out of the town mostly in silence, broken only by the muttered curses Naruko gave as she was forced to rub harder and harder to clean off the last speck of red from her skin.

They were an hour from the outskirts of town and the black void of starry sky was just lightening to a bruised looking purple when Naruko tore the fox mask from her face with a gasp. "Well that was a great time, though I'm not much of a fan of the constant sweating."

Wordlessly following suit, Sasuke pulled the hawk mask from his pale features and slipped it into the folds of his yukata. Clammy stickiness chilled rapidly in the night air over his forehead and cheekbones, and with a revolted grimace the Uchiha inwardly admitted she had a point.

"I killed Ueda."

Scrunching his eyebrows in confusion, the Uchiha stared at the swaying strands of Naruko's blonde hair that trailed down her back. It was an interesting little tidbit, he supposed. But nothing really important and Sasuke couldn't really piece together why she randomly brought it up.

"What of it?"

Naruko chuckled mirthlessly, craning her head up to stare at the distant stars. "I'm always on your case about killing this guy or that guy. I didn't even kill anyone else in there. But when it came to him I just didn't want to let him walk away." The blonde lapsed into silence, stewing in her own thoughts before she broke the quiet again.

"Hey, Sasuke..."

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna become a shinigami."

"I'm aware of that, idiot."

"No." Coming to a stop, Naruko spun on her heel to face the raven haired man. Moonlight shone across her face, dying the tan skin white and bringing her whisker marks into start contrast. Slitted cerulean eyes glimmered with inner fire, and the Uzumaki clenched a fist into her yukata near the throat. "I'm going to be the strongest shinigami there is."

Sasuke blinked, tilting his head.

"I mean, what the hell kind of a heaven is this? You suffer and die in the living world, and then come here to do it all over again? What the hell is the point if you just go from one violent life to another? You'd think given a few hundred years to grow up that people could just get together, and I don't know, talk things out and find something that benefits everyone. Instead it's just this constant struggle of hate and pain where people make a living stealing, killing, and enslaving each other. Screw that! Maybe life in the Seireitei is different and the shinigami don't know enough to want to make a difference out here, or maybe they just don't have enough strength for it. I don't care either way! If they're too blind to see what a shithole heaven is, I'll make them see it. And if they're too weak to make a difference, then I'll just become strong enough to shoulder all that hate!"

"You're such an idealist." Sasuke deadpanned, dodging the half-hearted punch the whiskered blonde sent at his face for the comment. "What makes you think that people want to, or are even able to come together like that and stop committing violence against each other?"

Quirking his lips up in a small smirk, Sasuke shook his head ruefully. "Well whatever, do what you want. I suppose I'll just have to stick around and stop you from getting yourself killed."

* * *

In time, the muscles thickened once more along their limbs and the starved hollows of their cheeks filled back in. Sasuke and Naruko spent four weeks in Kurokaze, slipping into towns at night to break the backs of local crime syndicates and make off with the spoils of the Uzumaki's personal brand of vigilant justice.

Shading her eyes with a shielding hand, Naruko peered through the early morning sunlight in all directions before shrugging with satisfaction. "Coast seems clear to me." The blonde stuck her tongue out at her companion's wordless grunt before giving herself one last pat-down.

The yukata she wore was a step-up from the drab dark navy outfit that Sasuke had stolen from Ueda weeks ago. The cherry blue cloth wrapped around Naruko was more suited to her personality, and the curling orange accents along the borders were a nice touch. The bright orange bow tied in the back only accentuated the cheeriness of her outfit. Her fox mask was bagged with Sasuke's hawk mask at the Uchiha's waist.

The assault and larceny of criminal elements had paid off well, even if the venture was consider stupidly risky and insane by 'normal' people. Naruko and Sasuke were among the strongest warriors in the district, if not the strongest themselves – anyone with skills and shinigami potential had likely long since departed to join the Shinigami Academy. But even with that strength, it was becoming unsafe to continue with their nightly escapades. Yakuza all across Kurokaze were on high alert for the bandits _Taka_ and _Kitsune_ , and without the element of surprise overwhelming them was a riskier venture.

"Let's go then." Sasuke sighed, rising to his feet and dusting the leaves from his navy hakama. Unlike his blonde companion, the Uchiha hadn't cared all that much to spend their burgled funds on a new outfit. The clothes that he'd stolen from the now-deceased Ueda's gambling den on their first night in Kurokaze proved sufficient. Outside of food, the only thing Sasuke had cared to obtain for himself was a katana to tie above his wakizashi. Adjusting to the length of the longer blade had taken a bit of time, but the dark haired male felt he was better off for the extra steel.

Taking the last bite of the red apple in his hand, Sasuke tossed the core into the bushes before turning south and beginning to walk. A slight rustle of fabric warned him that Naruko was barely a step behind, and he silently increased the pace of his steps.

More frequent rustling reached his ears as the blonde quickened her own walking in response. Sasuke frowned slightly before speeding his own steps up again. Once more, the near constant rub of fabric reached him, and the raven had enough.

Spinning about with a ferocious scowl, Sasuke took one look at the mischievous smirk on Naruko's features before giving it up as a lost cause. Lifting a hand and pushing back on her shoulder to reduce the obvious invasion of his person space, he rolled his eyes. "How old are you?"

"Who knows?"

"I suppose you could be four. Might explain the idiocy."

Blowing a raspberry at the dour male, Naruko lifted her hand and waved it in a nonchalant shooing motion at him. "Oh please, you need to learn to _live_ a little Sasu-chan. Get that stick out of your ass and smell life."

"If there was a stick removed from my ass, I'm not sure I'd want to be smelling anything."

The bickering continued as the sun rose high in the sky and the pair of souls crossed into the 67th district.

* * *

"Hey, did you hear?"

"Hear about what?"

"Just last night apparently Kitsune broke into the boss's house and beat the snot out of him!"

"No _way_! That's awesome!"

Curling her lips up into a wry smirk, Naruko nudged her elbow into Sasuke's side as a pair of boys dodged around their legs before taking off down one of the side alleys. "Bet you wish you could be awesome like me, don't you?"

"The only thing enviable about you is that ridiculous ability to survive almost anything."

Naruko pouted, turning puppy dog eyes in the direction of her Uchiha friend, who was unmoved by the sight. After a long beat of meeting his impassive gaze, the blonde sighed mournfully and turned back to scanning the streets.

There was a certain liveliness in the people that had been entirely absent when the pair had strolled into the town the day before. Naruko had been shocked to hear that Taka had been caught and hung by the so-called 'authorities' for his crimes, and that Kitsune had died from her wounds in custody.

Fugai was the 64th district of North Rukongai, and by the time the traveling pair of hopeful shinigami recruits-cum-vigilantes had crossed the four districts between it and Kurokaze, their little rebellion had become something of a local legend. Which was why she shouldn't have been so surprised to hear that their work had inspired copycat thieves to take up the masks and strike back at the strongmen lording it over them.

The blonde was full of a mixture of glee and guilt. Glee that people in Soul Society were waking up and realizing that their imprisoned human condition wasn't destined. But there was guilt that because of their little crusade two well-meaning but overconfident young souls were dead.

"Stop blaming yourself." Sasuke's voice rumbled through the orange bow that concealed her fox ears. Two fingers settled at the corners of her mouth, tugging the pursed line of her lips up into a gummy grin. "This look suits you much better, idiot."

Naruko slapped his hands away, but was unable to contain the reluctant grin. "I think there's something wrong with the world if tall, dark, and broody is the one telling me to put on a smile."

"Exactly."

"Bastard."

Threading her arm through Sasuke's, Naruko led him through the streets will subtly leaning on him all the way. The Uchiha made no sound to note her weakness, but the way he subtly stepped closer to support her better was appreciated.

Concealed beneath the bright folds of the blonde yukata was a half-foot slash up the outside of her thigh. It wasn't deep, but it made walking a pain in the ass and sent jolts of white lightning up her nerves if Naruko put too much pressure on it. One of the guards had gotten lucky the night before, slipping past her notice to score a strike before Sasuke decapitated him with uncharacteristic brutality.

"We're not going to be able to keep doing this forever." Sasuke murmured lowly as they circled around a street bend and began to stroll alongside a gently flowing river. "The shinigami patrol in the 60th district, and while it's probably pretty sporadic there, eventually they'll become common enough to keep the law. After that, there's not going to be any scumbags to steal from."

Humming her agreement, Naruko patted the fat netsuke tied to Sasuke's left hip. "Which is why we have this little nest egg, right? We've been able to feed ourselves pretty well by stealing, and we've got enough money saved up to go a month or so if we're careful. We might even luck out and have people lend us a hand if we tell them we're trying to join the Academy. Worst comes to worst, we can just resort to stealing again. Just don't _kill_ anyone and we should be fine."

"Again with the no killing." Sasuke complained beneath his breath, scanning the surroundings for any possible threats. "Doesn't that make you a hypocrite, since you seem to make a point of it to _waste_ the local crime lords given the chance?"

"Hey c'mon, that's unfair. I give all of them more than enough chances to change their ways. Either they refuse and I have to put them down, or they lie about it and I have to come back later and punch their tickets. It's not like I just slice open anyone that looks at me the wrong way."

"Of course not. You only do that if they put their grubby little hands on your ramen."

"As I should. Ramen is the food of the gods! The most succulent, most delicious, most heavenly thing anyone has ever and will ever taste! Not that you'd know all that much about it, Mr. Tomato Gobbler."

"Idiot."

* * *

The first time they saw a shinigami, Sasuke was less than impressed. Wandering into the 60th district, the Uchiha scanned Shirohagane and determined it to be exactly the same as the district that they'd been in before it, and the one before that. The only notable difference was that one of the drunken customers stumbling out of the door to mah-jong parlour wore the signature black shihakusho of the shinigami.

In a way, it was disappointed. Less so for him, considering the openly dismayed expression on Naruko's face as the blonde watched the scruffy swordsman stumble on down the street, but disappointing nonetheless. Sasuke didn't know what he'd been subconsciously expecting. The shinigami were supposed to be the legendary gods of death. Mediators of souls and the keepers of the laws in heaven. Instead they were apparently just as fallible and corrupt as any other human soul.

"You don't suppose that the further you go in, the better they get, do you? Naruko sighed, turning away and gauging the time. The last dregs of red dusk were still stretching crimson fingers through the sky. It would be several hours yet before the midnight hour, when the customers were drunk and the bar was ripe for the smashing.

"They do." Sasuke volunteer with such assurance that it surprised even himself. "Even in organizations that keep the law, there's always going to be a leech on the belly. So far out from the Seireitei, he's probably the only soldier for miles, if not in the entire district. Closer in there's probably far more oversight." The words spilled out of his mouth almost unconsciously, the way that all forgotten information from their past lives seemed to bubble up. Though that begged the question of why _he_ would know anything about the inner workings of a police force.

_Red and white fan –_

" _Sasuke, my boy."_

_A dark four pointed star –_

" _The pride of the-"_

Snapping fingers in front of his dazed eyes shocked the Uchiha out of his reverie. Naruko stared up at the dark-haired man with a searching gaze before frowning. "Another flash, yeah?"

Sasuke rubbed a finger over the sudden vengeful pulsing in his forehead. Humming an agreement, Sasuke winced involuntarily as the pain spiked sharply before vanishing entirely.

'Flashes'. What a simplistic name for the random images, words, and sensations that sometimes flooded their minds as they pushed too hard against whatever mental barrier they had that hide the memories of their time in the world of the living. It was beyond frustrating to know that within the dark corners of his own mind were answers to questions he was barely sure how to articulate. Naruko hated them too, but neither of them had any luck in solving the mystery, and the one time they'd asked a third party for advice they'd been accused of being off their rockers.

'Everyone' knew that once one died, that was that. No one, from the dirtiest scum in Zaraki to the Soutaichou of the Gotei 13 ever publicly claimed anything different. Whatever situation they were in as far as memory and the lives they had once lived went, they were completely and utterly alone. If Sasuke were trapped in this situation with anyone else, he'd have long since broken away to try and solve it on his own.

But since it was Naruko bound into the same basket and sent on her merry way to hell with him, well, the Uchiha couldn't really say he minded it all that much.


	4. On the Road Again

" _Hello_ stranger!" A voice bellowed abruptly in his ear, a burly arm coming to rest across his shoulders. Sasuke reacted immediately; heart going from a lazy rolling to a hammering beat as he wrapped both hands around the offender's wrist and _pulled_.

Black and white whirled past his vision as the Uchiha threw the mystery man over his shoulder, slamming the body onto the table in front of him and scattering the sake saucers all over the floor. The bar watched in horrified silence as the legs of the table went out, sending the shinigami tumbling to the floorboards with a crash and splutter of spilt alcohol.

"Ouchy." The shinigami groaned, rubbing a bump on the top of his dark head before opening one eye and cracking a grin. Giving a second theatrical " _Ouchy_." the man closed his open eye and went limp, looking dead to the world and lolling his tongue out comically.

" _Taichō!"_ A second shinigami shrieked, giving Sasuke a dirty look before pushing past a snickering Naruko to hover anxiously over the prone body of his captain. Wringing his hands, the shinigami nudged at the captain's body with his foot. "Shiba-taichō?"

Dark eyes popped back open. "Surprise!" the captain shouted gleefully, one hand grabbing tight of his subordinate's pant leg and the other snaking to yank at Sasuke's yukata. Sending both men tumbling on their asses, he hopped to his feet and snatched a saucer of sake from a gawking onlooker.

"You're right." Shiba-taichō offered Naruko conversationally, patting at the shoulder of his haori to dust off splinters before swallowing down the cheap liquor with a grin. "He does have a bit of a stick up his ass."

"Who are you?" Sasuke seethed as he untangled himself from the squirming body of the captain's subordinate. Rising to his feet, he gave a foul look to a particularly nosy looking stranger before shuffling to Naruko's side and ignoring the pain in his tailbone.

The captain smirked, twirling in place to display the back of his white haori and carelessly throwing the empty saucer aside.

The kanji for 'ten' was emblazoned black and proud along the line of the shinigami's spine, contained in a black rhombus. "I'm glad you asked." He began pompously, turning back around and cradling his chin in one hand while giving an exaggerated wink.

"Who else could I be but the amazing, ridiculously powerful, devastatingly sexy, inspiring and ever victorious JūbantaitaichōShiba Isshin?" Isshin's dark eye glimmered with mock solemnity. "Join my division; I'll protect you until I die!"

"What." Sasuke deadpanned, digging an elbow into Naruko's side as the blonde broke down in a sputter of laughter.

The second shinigami hauled himself to his feet with a put-upon sigh. "Shiba-taichō, please refrain from harassing passerby. It reflects poorly on the image of the Gotei 13 and your family."

"Nonsense Tatsumi! I'm not harassing them. Right? Of course not! You tell him just how not-harassed you are."

"I'm feeling very harassed."

"Nah, you're alright." Naruko disagreed at the same time, smirking smugly at the annoyed look the Uchiha sent down at her.

"See Tatsumi? We're all good here. Now shoo, I'm sure you have some paperwork to be doing."

"Taichō, I believe that's _your_ paperwork."

"Nah it's yours. That's how it works in our division. I'll protect you until I die, and you have to handle all of my paperwork until I kick the bucket. Now shoo."

Tatsumi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before giving Sasuke a pitying look. "Good luck." The man offered before turning about and leaving the bar.

Rubbing his hands together, Isshin turned to give the other two a roguish grin. "Well how about it, hmm? I noticed your reiatsu from outside. Ever think of becoming a shinigami before?"

"Actually, we were already trying to get to the Seireitei and sign up for the Academy." Naruko confessed, arching a golden eyebrow. "But it's taking _forever_ to get there. And even if we do, I don't know if we're going to be able to actually get in."

"You'll do fine." Isshin waved off her concerns dismissively. "The Academy is open to everyone with enough reiryoku. And since I could sense you from the street, you've more than likely got enough of it. If they were expecting you to be trained, the only people that would ever get in would be noble brats."

Blinking, Naruko shrugged. "Well, uh, thanks, I guess?"

"What's a captain doing out in the fiftieth district?" Sasuke cut in suspiciously, eying the oddly jovial man. "Don't you have duties or something? And why would you pop in to see some random strangers and try to recruit them?"

Isshin grinned. "Why wouldn't I try to recruit more people to join the Gotei 13? It's not like we've got a surplus of soldiers or anything. We can always use more. As for duties, hmm. Well I suppose I'm just doing some random inspections of our furthest outposts. Keeps them on their toes, ya know? Speaking of which," the captain launched forward to throw his arms over their shoulders. "I suppose I might be seeing you again tomorrow at the outpost?"

Sasuke tried to push the captain's muscled arm off to no avail, growing more and more annoyed as it yielded no results. Giving up with a sigh, he turned a dark glare at the man invading his personal space. "Now why would we do that?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to join the Academy?"

"Yes."

"Well then I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'm not really seeing how those two things are connected."

Isshin stared at Sasuke before tightening his arm so he could pinch at the Uchiha's cheek. "What district did you say you were from?"

"I didn't."

"Zaraki." Naruko sighed, not quite able to prevent a smug smirk from lighting up her face. "Play nice boys, or you'll be in big trouble one day."

Making a noise of comprehension, the Shiba swiveled his focus to the blonde tucked under his other arm. "Well that explains a bit, I guess. Did you think you had to walk all the way to the Seireitei just to get tested to join the Academy? If people had to do that, no one outside the fortieth district would ever join up. Every five districts up to the sixtieth has a recruitment station where you can take ShinōAcademy's entrance exam. So if you've been walking from Zaraki, you walked ten districts more than you had to."

"What a waste." Sasuke grumbled, resuming his futile efforts to push off the vastly stronger man.

"Yep." The Jūbantaitaichō agreed, popping the 'p' with a smack of the lips. Finally removing his arms - to the Uchiha's vast relief - Isshin turned to leave. "Well, I'll see you kids tomorrow. Remember, join the Tenth and I'll protect you until I die! Just keep doing that paperwork, and everything will turn out just fine. Believe in me!"

Sasuke watched the shinigami captain saunter off with a swagger in his steps before he turned to address his blonde companion. "Does that man have no concept of personal space? Let's _never_ meet him again."

"I thought he was fun. Give him a few years and he might even be able to help me pull that stick out of your ass."

" _Naruko_."

* * *

The day dawned bright and early, white shafts of sunlight stinging her eyes as Naruko leant back against the shinigami outpost with an expression of pure impatience. Sasuke had just gone in for _his_ test, which made Naruko jealous as hell.

They'd been standing around in the lineup for _hours_. If the blonde had known just how damn long it would take just to get in to get tested, Naruko would have made the effort to get up earlier. Sleeping in was nice, but not if she had to pay for it by standing around until she got bored and hungry.

"Uzumaki Naruko?"

"Eh?" Turn her attention to the bearded Shinigami that had called her name, the blonde goggled as the black-haired geezer impatiently motioned her into the building. "Am I up?"

"Yes." Her guide informed her coolly, the wrinkles of his face deepening as he glared at the possible recruit so fiercely Naruko couldn't help but wriggle is discomfort. "We're going to test your ability to emit reiatsu. If you can't do at least a little of that after we give you the tools, you fail."

" _Eh?"_ Naruko had just enough time for another befuddled utterance before her so-called guide settled a hand between her shoulder blades and shoved her into the next room.

"Oh, hello there, blondie." A familiar voice greeted, drawing Naruko's attention.

Shiba Isshin was seated at a beaten-up table, offering a shit-eating grin to his latest visitor as he shuffled his hands over the smooth surface of a worn crystal ball. His dark orbs were friendly, but expectant. "I already saw your loverboy today, so why don't you show me what you're made of?"

Bristling at the challenge, Naruko lifted her chin imperiously and stomped across the bare room so she could throw herself in the cheap chair directly across from the taichou. "Lay it on me! I'm ready for whatever ya got!"

Isshin huffed in amusement, rolling the cantaloupe sized crystal across the desk from one hand to the other. "Alright then." The captain agreed easily, pushing the glass orb across the desk so swiftly that Naruko scrambled to catch it before it ended up rolling right off and onto the floor.

Scowling at the examiner, Naruko cradled the clear crystal close to her chest. "Are you trying to break it?" the fox-girl accused, blue eyes sharp and annoyed.

Maybe she was being rude to a _captain_ of the _Gotei 13_ , but she couldn't help it. Isshin had the kind of face the begged to be punched, and he was so laid back it was impossible _not_ to feel at ease around him.

"It's not going to break." Isshin scoffed, scratching at the scruff of his beard. He was due for a shave, and as soon as the blonde brat finished up her test he'd be off to find a razor. Technically speaking, Isshin didn't have to be involved in Academy admissions, but he was a bit of a sucker for a good love story, and the way the two kids he'd met at the bar ogled each other was completely textbook.

First come awkward stares, and second comes the sexual tension. Third comes the jealousy and fourth comes an explosion of physical 'affection'. Or something like that If those two kids didn't manage to become a well-known example of romance in the ranks during or after the Academy, Isshin would eat his socks.

"It's a mini Reishuukaku." Isshin grinned, the white cloth of his captain's haori shifting as he shifted impatiently in his seat. "All you have to do is shove your reiatsu into it. If we get a reaction, you're in. If you can't figure out that much out, then you're out. After that we can worry about the paper tests and all the other stuff."

Goggling at the cheeky Shinigami officer, Naruto hunched her shoulders together before taking a steadying breath and pressing both palms against the clear glass surface of the reishuukaku stone. "So I just have to make it do something, right? Do I get any hints?"

"Nope."

The easy denial irritated the fuck out of Naruko, but she saw the reason for it. If the potential trainee in question couldn't fumble their way into making their spiritual energy do literally _anything_ , then they probably didn't have enough natural instinct to make it in the Shinigami Academy.

It came across as a waste, since there were probably a lot of potential recruits that would get turned away that just needed a little extra polishing to make up for their lack of natural skill, but the admissions process wasn't something Naruko had influence over. Maybe one day, if she managed to make it in the Gotei 13…

"Anything at all?" The busty blonde clarified, biting the inside of her cheek when Shiba-taichou merely impatiently grunted.

Fine then. Naruko clenched her jaw and stared at the orb cupped between her hands. The little thing was as clear as water, the edge shining faintly as it reflected the sunlight streaming in from the open windows.

It was a bit sad that such a tiny thing had probably ruled the fate of hundreds of souls. The reishuukaku glimmered innocently between Naruko's callused palms, empty and waiting patiently. It had a desolate sort of beauty, begging to be filled with _something_ that would disturb the otherwise corpse-like stillness.

The orb called for something bright and vibrant and alive, like spinning out the threads of a heart and letting them catch the light of the sun.

Naruko knew the moment she touched her reiryoku, because the sensation of pain and memory that nailed her between the eyes couldn't have allowed for anything else.

_Blue light swirled in the cradle of her palm._

_Ribbons of light and power swirled through the air._

_Pressure built and built, rolling angry and blood-orange as it boiled towards breaking…_

Sucking a low breath between her teeth, the fox girl pushed through the pain and dove into a thick river of _something_. It felt like a small sun curled around her heart, beating strong and faithful and pouring out streamers of life and golden fire into her veins.

Maybe it was just instinct, or maybe it was the training of a life mostly forgotten that led Naruko to shove the thick knot of her wild spiritual power along her limbs and into the cold empty sphere waiting between her palms.

The reishuukaku lit up like a miniature star, blazing yellow and warm as Naruko fed it energy. At first it easily soaked up the uneven tides of Naruko's reiryoku, its strong shine prompting Isshin to smirk with visible self-satisfaction.

"I knew you and the other kid were something special." The noble grinned, swiftly dipping the brush clenched between his fingers in an inkpot and making a few notes on the sheets of Naruko's application. "It's been years since we've had this much potential wander on through the doors I'm sure. Most of the newbies can't get it to do more than spark."

Whatever else Isshin intended to say was cut off by the faint whine that began to shrill from the reishuukaku, its smooth planes beginning to smoke with overload. The friendly yellow of Naruko's spiritual output had shifted to an angry red, seething within the confines of the testing orb like an untamed heartbeat.

"Whoops?" Naruko offered sheepishly, meeting the captain's dark gaze with trepidation.

Then the reishuukaku exploded, filling the air with the scent of burning chemicals.

Clenching her eyes shut, Naruko winced as little shards of glass cut into the skin of her hands and face, tearing tiny rivulets that let little streams of blood run hot and free.

The actual pain paled next to the sickly curl of embarrassment that curled in the blonde's gut. She'd gone so far beyond doing 'something' that she felt like an idiot. What kind of hamfisted dumbass managed to blow up their reishuukaku on the first go?

Naruko just knew that she'd managed to screw the pooch in the home stretch. The bastard had no doubt passed, but _she'd_ managed to fuck up. Which meant no Academy for Naruko, and Sasuke wouldn't go without her, and that meant it was back to the slums, and _that_ meant…

Very slowly, Isshin began to laugh. "Oh, I _like_ you."

* * *

"And now we're on the road again – ow!" Naruko rubbed at the back of her head where Sasuke had smacked her, and pouted with her pink lips. " _Bastard_."

Rolling his eyes at his companion, Sasuke drew one knee up to his chest and let the other dangle off the back of the cart. "It's been three days. Enough with the singing."

"It's not my fault if you don't know how to have fun, Mister Stick-in-the-Mud."

"Fun has nothing to do with it. Stop being annoying." Sasuke shot back irritably, catching Naruko's fist when the blonde aimed a lazy punch at his ribs. After a brief scuffle the fox girl subsided with a grumble, leaving the Uchiha alone with his thoughts.

Dark orbs scanned over the dirt path that wound away behind them. Its curve formed a beaten little earthy streak that stretched off into the northern horizon. Somewhere just over the rising hills was Akabeko, but the fiftieth northern district had passed beyond Sasuke's sight a few hours past.

They were travelling at a faster pace then their earlier meandering journey, since Shiba Isshin had shoved a heavy bag of coins into Naruko's hand and told her they should hitch a ride on one of the caravans that made periodic trips to the interior districts of Rukongai. They could head straight to the Seireitei without needing to steal supplies because of Isshin's generosity.

Sasuke wasn't sure how he felt about that. The Jūbantaitaichō had been generous and helpful, but the Uchiha was still wondering _why_.

The dark haired captain reminded him of Naruko with his gregarious foolishness, but Sasuke knew that no idiot would ever rise to the top in the Gotei 13. Which just begged the question – was Shiba Isshin just a genuinely nice person, or did he have some other hidden agenda?

What was a _captain_ doing out in Akabeko anyway? Was Shiba on a mission for the government? Or was he pulling some strings on behalf of his clan? Doing 'inspections' seemed too benign, and could be handled more efficiently by a seated officer.

All the intrigue irritated Sasuke, but this was their life now. They'd applied to become Shinigami, passed the stupid little tests, and were on their way to the Seireitei. So Sasuke would just have to put up with all the little political annoyances and hidden motivations.

At least there'd be food to eat, a roof over their heads, and a ladder to power they could climb.

"Ne, ne, Sasuke. Let's play a game."

Blinking at Naruko, Sasuke considered the whiskers on her face that twisted with her little pout. Her blonde fox ears might have been hidden under a vibrant orange bow, but unless she slathered makeup on there was no covering her other vulpine features. It was… cute, and before he could defer to better judgement the Uchiha was grunting in agreement. He wasn't weak in front of women, but in front of _Naruko_ on the other hand…

Naruko beamed, rubbing the bridge of her pert nose with a self-satisfied look before going to inspect their surroundings. "I spy with my little eye something _purple_." She sing-songed, both legs kicking lazily off the back of the cart. They were on the last wagon in line, so there was no one else to see her bare feet swing.

Huffing with fond exasperation, Sasuke turned to scan over the rolling fields. Soul Society was wrapped in the heat of midsummer, with vibrant grass and flowers growing thick and strong as they stretched towards the sun. It only took a handful of seconds to pick out a little smattering of violet petals.

"Flowers." Sasuke grunted. He could go around guessing at the species, but Naruko probably didn't care about that, even if she actually _knew_ any types of flora. Which Sasuke suspected was not the case, since his friend was no scholar.

"You're a quick shot, aren't you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

" _Nothing_."

Glaring at the blonde when she made a totally unconvincing expression of innocence, Sasuke snapped his hand out so he could poke Naruko between the eyes. Satisfied with his revenge after the fox girl gave an indignant screech, the Uchiha returned to studying their surroundings.

"This game is stupid." He declared after a moment. There was nothing around beyond the obvious grass, clouds, and dirt road. Unless they were going to turn around and start using the other travellers in the caravan as objects for the game, it was very quickly going to devolve into 'no I meant _this_ flower and you meant _that_ one'.

Naruko gave a low moan of disappointment, but didn't refute her companion's assertion. The blonde had probably seen the same thing Sasuke did. "Fine." She spun around on her tailbone, bringing her bare feet up into the wagon and plopping her head in the Uchiha's lap.

"What do you want to do after we're Shinigami?"

Sasuke weighed the question, absently letting one hand tangle itself in the sun-kissed strands of Naruko's hair.

How could he begin to answer that? He didn't claim to be an expert on the Gotei 13 by any means, but he'd picked up enough tidbits to paint a picture of an organization rife with political and military struggle. It would be years before they graduated the Academy, and while Sasuke could plan ahead, he couldn't do it almost entirely without information.

Or maybe Sasuke was just grossly overthinking things. "What else?" he smirked, smug amusement glittering in his obsidian gaze. "Become the strongest."

A silent heartbeat passed, and then Naruko was chuckling with hearty delight. "Why did I even ask?" the whiskered blonde wondered, eyes crinkled up with laughter. The answer was practically a given. "I'll have to correct ya, though. _I'll_ be the strongest. You can be my right-hand man. Or maybe the left hand, if you get too uppity."

Sasuke flicked at the fox girl's nose. "You don't have what it takes to beat me."

"I think I'll demote you to the left _foot_ man, bastard."

* * *

"And make sure you stay away from strange men!"

"I got it, oyaji." Naruko rolled her eyes at Eiji, sparing the caravan leader a final cheeky grin before turning away and stepping into the crowd. She could feel Sasuke moving at her heels, she was so engrossed by Hokutan that she didn't spare him more than a passing thought.

Everything was so _clean_. The people milling about were full cheeked and well fed, clad in fine yukata and little pieces of finery here and there. The last leg of Eiji's journey had swerved off and around to the west, ending in Rukongai's third west district and leaving the two Academy applicants to cross the final distance to the Seireitei on their own.

Hokutan was not at all like Zaraki had been. The difference law and order made in the happiness and prosperity of the people was like the difference between night and day. And looming over it all were the white walls of the Seireitei in the distance, so pure and strong it took Naruko's breath away.

"I wonder what the inside looks like."

"You'll see it soon enough anyway." Sasuke mumbled, tightening his grip around Naruko's elbow as he steered the flighty blonde along the marketplace streets. There were so many _people_ , all teeming together like a faceless mass of hundreds, oblivious and ignorant in the shadow of Shinigami power.

"Bah, you're not being any fun." Naruko shot back, slowing so that she could link arms with the Uchiha rather than have him hang on to her elbow with his crushing grip. "Let's just hurry on into the first district so we can go check it out!"

Shin'o Academy was located behind the walls of Seireitei, and just like many other places within the Court of Pure Souls, it was little more than a legend for the common folk that had to live outside the ivory structure.

Sasuke and Naruko were members of a privileged few, who could cross into Seireitei at any time with their acceptance letters to the Academy, since they had both business in the Court and a place to stay.

Classes weren't supposed to start for another month, but in order to accommodate the students that lived at the far-flung corners of Rukongai, Shin'o Academy opened it dorms year-round to any soul that had been accepted into the institution and ensured all its students had a roof over their heads.

"I wonder what kind of food they've got in there." Naruko drooled, a greedy glint in her blue eyes as she kept conjuring up images of what life would be like inside the Seireitei. "I'm getting tired of fruits, veggies, and rice. I want chicken and pork buns and _ramen_!"

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow at the blonde. "Always going on and on about those noodles. I don't see what's so special about them anyway."

Gasping at the Uchiha's heresy, Naruko pulled away from him and gaped at the dark-haired man with horror. "You're questioning the food of the gods? Shame on you. Out, you vile beast. _Out_!"

Jerking his chin towards the crowd, Sasuke boldly met the few curious gazes that had been drawn by Naruko's effusive behavior. "Look around you, blondie. You're surrounded by 'gods', and I guarantee you that most of them here aren't going to care about _ramen_ of all things."

Naruko actually looked ill at that declaration, fisting a hand in the orange cotton of her yukata. The waist-length golden strands of her hair fluttered in the faint breeze, and she held her silence long enough to look like a tableau of a horrified genteel lady.

Then she stuck out her tongue at Sasuke. "Bleh, you have no taste. No taste at all."

* * *

When they crossed into Seireitei, it was high noon, and the shift in atmosphere hit them like a horse kick between the eyes. The various districts of Rukongai varied in terms of their wealth and safety, but they all shared a certain irreverent young vitality. Rukongai was alive and kicking.

The Seireitei was cold and austere, and the slap of Naruko's sandals over the pale cobblestones was both faint as a whisper and loud as the crack of thunder. Everything held a certain hushed stillness, washed out of passions and imperfections until only the core of duty remained like a chilled blade arcing for the heart.

Even the haphazard maze of buildings that filled the Seireitei's circular walls didn't quite manage to break the impression of calcified stillness.

Hunching her shoulders together, Naruko shifted closer to Sasuke and repressed a shiver. "It's pretty." She complimented conversationally, blue eyes drilling into the back of their black-clad Shinigami guide.

The redhead hadn't bothered to give his name, just telling the pair of recruits that he was an unseated member of the Fifth Division and that he'd hand them off to someone who could more properly direct them to the Academy.

"I'm not paid to chat with Rukon trash." The Shinigami declared icily, hard green eyes never wavering from the horizon. The short spikes of his hair shivered in the breeze, crowning a tanned face that might have been handsome if his expression didn't make it look like he was walking around with a moustache made of smeared shit under his nose all the time.

The slur passed over Naruto like water down a duck's back, so easily shrugged off that the fox girl couldn't help but wonder if she'd had practice ignoring insults and curses in the life she couldn't remember.

Sasuke took the abuse less well, clenching his jaw and staring so malevolently at their guide that Naruko knew he was picking out the best set of ribs to shove a knife between. The Uchiha had enough self control not to fly off the handle and murder the man, but Naruko knew he _wanted_ to.

Bad Sasuke. Down boy.

The rest of their journey across the enormous courtyard that lay behind Seireitei's west gate passed quietly, and Naruko was glad for it. She might have wanted to punch the cocky redhaired prick in the mouth, but she had enough sense to know that she needed to keep her lips shut.

It didn't matter how prejudiced those born inside Seireitei were against those born in the Rukongai. It didn't matter if some no name bastard wanted to insult her and her friend, and look down on them just for having come from the 'wrong' place.

Admission to Shin'o Academy was a privilege, not a right, and if a Shinigami decided to lodge a complaint against them before they'd even walked through the gates, Naruko and Sasuke would be screwed and out on their asses before they'd managed to get anywhere.

The most important thing to do was graduate from the Academy, and if Naruko had to swallow her pride for a few minutes to do that, then she would. Perhaps one day there would be a reckoning for all the self-important fucks in the Gotei 13, but it wasn't that day yet.

As soon as the party of three reached the barracks nearest to the west gate, the redhead sneered at the pair of recruits and stomped back away. The man was on guard duty, and spent his days processing anyone that wanted admission to the Court of Pure Souls. Beyond that, it wasn't his job to look after wet-behind-the-ears newbies.

"Fucker." Naruko muttered under her breath, watching as the Shinigami left with burning anger twisting the curves of her mouth. She couldn't help but tighten her grip on Sasuke's bicep, not sure if she was trying to ground her _own_ temper or the temper of her companion.

Blowing a sigh through his dark bangs, Sasuke poked at Naruko's hand and repressed a wince. "Loosen up." He demanded roughly. Her nails were sharp, and while his base instincts could appreciate the clinging and the closeness of her body, the rest of Sasuke wasn't much of a fan of pain.

Naruko didn't apologize; merely loosening her grasp instead and turning about to face the barracks. There wasn't anything that immediately set the guard post apart from the surrounding buildings. It was just as short and squat as the rest, with white stone walls and a wood tiled roof.

Eyeing the double doors they'd been deposited in front of, Naruko squared her shoulders and sought Sasuke's eyes with her own. Azure clashed with coal, stoking a mutual determined fire until both souls were as ready for the unknown as they were going to be. "Well, let's get this over with, yeah?"

"Tch. Whatever."


End file.
